MigrationsMigrationsCells, birds, and musings from a biologist 
Articles
The ?Good Days? of Ambelopoulia
2009-09-22 14:51:00 So I finally came across a literate defense of the ambelopoulia practice here in Cyprus, but it still comes up short. On the website ?????? ?????? (Cyprus Hunting), an article originally published in the Cypriot newspaper ???????????? by ?????? ?????? was reproduced, titled “?? ????? ????? ??? “???????” ???? ???? ???????” (”The good days of ... More About: Conservation , Days , Good , The Good
Migratory Bird Declines
2009-09-21 14:46:00 The majority of birds that one can see in Cyprus are passage migrants, passing through only during travels from Europe and Asia to Africa and back. Three years ago, I noted the rising awareness of a worrying migratory bird population decline in Europe. Last year, the same conclusion was reached in the State of the ... More About: Bird
Quote of the Day
2009-09-18 17:29:00 Biodiversity and endangered species are two topics on my mind today, along with a common response from Cypriots with regard to poaching and ambelopoulia here. That response being, “So what?” With that, here is a quote (okay, more of an excerpt) from David Quammen’s book Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction, ... More About: Quote Of The Day , Biophilia , Quote
What Ambeloupoulia Is
2009-09-16 15:11:00 This is part of the series of posts Poaching in Cyprus FAQ What is ambelopoulia? mbelopoulia is a controversial dish of pickled or grilled songbirds served in some Cypriot restaurants. Warbler species such as Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla), and old world flycatchers such as European Robins (Erithacus rubecula) are the most prized, although any small bird of about ... More About: Conservation
Responding to Bird Poachers in Cyprus
2009-09-15 09:54:00 This is part of the series of posts Poaching in Cyprus FAQ What can you do to help change public opinion in Cyprus? Some people from outside Cyprus, and especially western/northern Europe and the US, will express the personal reaction on seeing that so many birds are being killed on Cyprus by asking for a boycott of ... More About: Conservation , Bird
Feral Cats and Birds (in Cyprus)
2009-09-10 18:08:00 Those subscribed to my Twitter account will note that yesterday I had a minor blow-up when I saw this article in Audubon Magazine when I got to the bit where Ted Williams claims that we give some respect to the animal rights’ group The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Basically, I had heard ... More About: Cats , Conservation , Birds , Cyprus
Spring Hunting in Malta to End Permanently
2009-09-10 16:22:00 EU bans Maltese bird hunt (Wildlife Extra News): Malta has finally been forced to comply with European bird protection laws, following a landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice which has declared that Malta has been breaching European law by allowing the spring hunting of quail and turtle dove passing through the islands on migration. ... More About: Conservation , Spring , Birds , Hunting
Treatment of Birds in Cyprus
2009-09-09 12:00:00 Via BirdLife Cyprus I saw this: BirdLife Cyprus comment on the CABS trapping footage: The shocking footage of bird trapping in Cyprus in spring 09 publicised by CABS on the internet demonstrates most vividly the extent of the cruelty involved and – more importantly – the horribly indiscriminate nature of this illegal activity, which poses a very real threat to many bird species. Images of threatened species, such as the Wryneck Jynx torquilla, and endemic species, such as the Cyprus Scops Owl Otus scops cypria, are of particular note. BirdLife Cyprus fully supports any efforts that help publicise this problem and more than shares the concerns of visiting organisations such as CABS about the continuing extent of the problem. Tagged: Birds , Cyprus More About: Treatment
Image of the Day
2009-09-09 08:11:00 Taken by a friend of mine preparing to attend the Burning Man festival, which I’m sharing because of its imagery of Darwin and evolution: Evolution Tagged: art More About: Image
The Retreating Arctic
2009-09-08 07:50:00 Words not required, just satellite imagery and data, via NASA on Youtube: And data on age of the ice here, showing the centuries-old areas of ice shrinking (Rigor and Wallace, 2004): For more, check out the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and especially the section on Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis. Tagged: Climate Change ...
Image of the Day ? Demoiselle Cranes
2009-09-07 13:58:00 If you’ve never seen a living Demoiselle Crane in the wild, you might have seen one in a zoo or in the TV series Planet Earth. The scene in Planet Earth, where Golden Eagles ambushed Demoiselle Cranes as they migrated high over the Himalayas, is actually how I knew the bird. They are in fact a ... More About: Biophilia , Image
Competition is the New Socialism
2009-09-04 10:50:00 While it’s not related to what I prefer to talk about – birds, biology, science – the health insurance reform debate raging in American politics is something that I have been following very closely. And one of the things that strikes me is the shrill screaming by those referring to themselves as Libertarians, about how ... More About: Competition , Socialism
Open Letter to a Former Friend
2009-09-01 19:00:00 Dusty, So it goes without saying that talking politics with friends can be a risky business. Friend s can be lost and enemies made that way. It is sad, of course. But at the same time, I fervently believe that friends and family should be able to talk about politics, religion, and many other issues without tensions ... More About: Open , Letter , Open Letter
Quote of the Day
2009-08-31 07:42:00 This comes from Richard Feynman, who presented this in a talk at the fifteenth annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association, in New York City (1966), titled “What is Science?”. It was later published in The Physics Teacher (1969). During those walks in the woods, I learned a great deal. In the case of birds, ... More About: Quote Of The Day , Quote
Image of the Day
2009-08-27 18:03:00 (Click on the image for the article) Tagged: Cyprus More About: Conservation , Image
Remaking Habitat From Landfill
2009-08-26 09:03:00 Here is a story from my hometown newspaper in the US that I could not help but pass along: Landfill remakes 200 acres as valuable wildlife habitat, by Gary Blockus. The area already is home to a wide variety of birds and wildlife, and the facility has been adding a variety of bird boxes for different ... More About: Biophilia , Habitat
Cyprus Birds email-list
2009-08-25 11:37:00 Want to hear more about birdwatching in Cyprus ? On one of my many whims, I started an email-list (Cyprus-birds) to help stir discussion and build community about wild birds here. Anyone can join. There are a lot of things that this email-list could do for birdwatchers in Cyprus, including providing leadership to newer birders by ... More About: Email , List , Birds , Birding
Measurable Losses of Biodiversity in Europe
2009-08-20 11:25:00 Those who read here often know that one of my primary concerns for birds here in Cyprus is the very high levels of poaching, and the subsequent impact of this over-exploitation on biodiversity. As such I was struck by a 2008 study by Stuart Butchart in Bird Conservation International. The article, titled “Red List Indices ... More About: Europe , Losses , Biodiversity
Selfish Genes
2009-08-19 10:12:00 This is a re-post from a contribution of mine to Bitesize Bio. I doubt that anyone reading Bitesize Bio has never heard of Richard Dawkins. He’s always been controversial in one way or another, ever since the release of arguably his most popular book, The Selfish Gene (Amazon US/UK). But despite Dawkins’ notoriety, maybe there are ... More About: Books , Evolution , Genes
Image of the Day
2009-08-17 11:35:00 Wikipedia – Eleonora’s Falcon (Falco eleonorae) is a medium-sized falcon. It belongs to the hobby group, a rather close-knit number of similar falcons often considered a subgenus Hypotriorchis. The Sooty Falcon is sometimes considered its closest relative, but while they certainly belong to the same lineage, they do not seem to be close sister species. ... More About: Biophilia , Birds , Image
Guest Post on Paw-Talk
2009-08-16 17:25:00 I wrote a nice (if I may say) invited guest post for the blog Paw-Talk , The Wonder of Birds . It’s rather on a personal note and directed towards relative newcomers to birdwatchers. Go check it out and let me know what you think. The blog Paw-Talk on the whole is pretty neat, and covers the gamut ... More About: Post , Biophilia , Guest
On Listing in Cyprus
2009-08-06 11:08:00 As Fatbirder tells it: Many (but by no means all) birders are inveterate list keepers. Some settle for a world life list… a list of all the species of birds they have seen at home and abroad, others will also keep a list of their home country and separate lists for each country they have visited. ... More About: Cyprus , Birding , Listing
How to Birdwatch
2009-08-05 13:30:00 Jane of BirdLife Cyprus recently posted on ‘Gaining Identification Skills’: It is stating the obvious to say that once you start bird watching you will want to be able to put a name to the different types or species that you see. When you start, trying to put the right name to the bird can be ... More About: Books , Birding
Quote of the Day
2009-07-31 13:01:00 Early man is, like everything else, an evolved creature and he finds himself in a world that he’s begun to take a little charge of; he’s begun to be a tool-maker, a changer of his environment with the tools that he’s made and he makes tools, when he does, in order to make changes in ... More About: Quote Of The Day , Quote
The Toll of Corvid Shootings in Cyprus
2009-07-30 11:40:00 From a 2003 article in the journal Zeitschrift für Jagdwissenschaft (Science magazine for hunting), formerly the European journal of wildlife research, I found a few interesting facts on the observed impacts of Corvid hunting in Cyprus . The article is titled The effect of Corvid shooting on the populations of Owls, Kestrels and Cuckoos in Cyprus, ... More About: Birds , Toll
Understanding Scientific Illiteracy
2009-07-11 18:23:00 In a continuation of my previous post on Mooney and Kirschenbaum’s Unscientific America: How Scientific Literacy Threatens Our Future, I have a few more thoughts on the elements underlying the majority of the book. Specifically, how the authors define scientific literacy and treat it as an entity that can be addressed either by educators, the ... More About: Science , Politics , Understanding
Unscientific American
2009-07-10 22:16:00 Just picked up my copy of Mooney and Kirschenbaum’s Unscientific America: How Scientific Literacy Threatens Our Future a few days ago. I’m rather on vacation, so my wife is annoyed I’m even blogging and tweeting, but it’s okay in brief snippets. And sadly I realize I overreacted to this bit: Yes, well, this whole mindset is ... More About: Science , Politics , Religion , American
Image of the Day
More articles from this author:2009-06-29 12:19:00 This is what most Cypriots think of when you put ‘birds’ and ‘a fun time’ in the same sentence. Either that, or eating them. This particular picture is from Fall 2007, when two Cypriot men found a convenient spot to go take some target practice, and shot 52 Red-Footed Falcons. They were caught, taken to ... More About: Conservation , Birds , Cyprus , Image 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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